Lease modifications after "interesting" mid-year inspection

[Brandon Harris]

Hello,

I'm looking for some input on how to resolve issues I found during a rental inspection yesterday.

I performed an inspection of a house that has been rented for 6 months. Lease is 1 year term. The tenants are a woman, her 2 year old daughter, and her husband who travels for months at a time. They have 3 dogs and I charge a $25 pet rent for each dog, no pet deposit. General deposit is equal to rent. The house is in a B neighborhood.

The tenants have paid on-time, or even early, every month so far. During the inspection the house was clean on the inside and there was no damage. It looks like they are taking care of it well. 

Here are the issues and my proposed solutions I encountered:

-The tenant was not there for the scheduled inspection. She forgot about it. Instead, I met her 2 roommates who I did not know about and who are not on the lease. I am going to have them do background checks and add them to the lease if they want to continue living there. I don't mind more people living there, but they have to be on the lease. I also don't appreciate being lied to about who is going to live there.

-The backyard was full of dog poop. It was hard for me to walk through it because it seemed like there was more poop than ground. The backyard is all bark dust so there is no damage to landscaping. I am going to ask the tenant to pick it up within 2 weeks and keep it picked up.

-There were 2 smoke detectors removed. I replaced the 1 that I could find in the house and went to Home Depot and bought a replacement for the other. I am going to charge the tenant for the replacement. Per the lease I can charge them $250 for each smoke detector that is removed. I am not going to do that, but I am going to remind them of it and tell them I will charge them if it happens again.

-One of the new roommates has a cat. I am going to add the cat to the pet addendum and charge them an extra $25 of pet rent per month.

-There is a Christmas tree leaning up against the backside of the house. It is completely dried out. I am asking the tenant to dispose of it immediately since it is a fire hazard.

-There is some excess garbage near their garbage cans. I am asking them to clean it up.

-The tenant and one of the roommates had several pipes and bongs in their rooms. It smelled a little of weed. This is legal in my state, but my lease says that smoking is prohibited on the property and the tenant said she was fine with that. They aren't going to stop smoking weed so how should I approach this?

I am going to schedule a follow up inspection in 2 weeks to check on the problems and make sure the smoke detectors are still in place.

I'd love feedback about my solutions and any help you can provide with the weed smoking issue. If they resolve these issues then they are good tenants who pay rent on time and keep the house clean and undamaged. One of the roommates was very nice and cooperative. The other seemed nervous I was there, understandably.

Thanks in advance for your input!

[Nathan Gesner]

I would not go easy on them. Multiple violations and they are blatant. They are intelligent enough to know that they can't add anyone they want, they can't add animals, they need to clean up dog feces, their trash goes in the garbage can, etc. This is a perfect example of a renter that doesn't respect you or the rules. This is not a case of young renters that just don't know any better. Things will only get worse if you don't nip this in the bud.

I would give them a written list of violations and one week to fix them and pass an inspection. This includes removal of the roommates, removal of the cat, pay for the smoke detectors, clean up ALL the feces, dispose of the Christmas tree, get all garbage in the cans or off the property, clean the smoke odor/damages, etc. If they are not 100% at time of inspection, I'll have a 30-day Notice in my back pocket to hand them.

It is bad practice to catch a Tenant in so many violations and then try to correct them by adjusting your policies or the lease. That just shows them that your rules are arbitrary and can be changed any time they want.

I also recommend increasing your animal rent to at least $50 per animal and setting a limit of two. In my experience, risk goes up significantly when renters own multiple animals. You may even consider $50 for a small animal, $100 for anything over 50 pounds just to scare off people with big dogs that are more likely to damage flooring, doors, blinds, yards, etc.